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The Institute for African Studies (IAS)

IAS is a research body incorporated in and
funded by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
The Institute has been conducting
research on historical, socio-economic,
ethno-cultural and political problems
of all independent African nations.

Field work

Field work has always been one
of the brightest components of the
activities of the Institute for African Studies.
In the 1960s these expeditions became
a regular activity of the Institute.
The key feature of all field research
in African countries has been their integrated nature.

Conference

Conferences are a major part of
activities of the Institute. They brighten
up the routine, provide new impetus
to the research, open up new fields
of study and expand the boundaries
of research activities.

Publishing activities

The Institute for African Studies carries
out its publishing activities by publishing books,
pamphlets and articles relevant to the problems
of Africa, the Arab East, Russia and the CIS.
There is the Editing and Publishing Department
and a Printing shop at the Institute.

Doctoral Studies Department

The Institute’s Doctoral Studies Department
is an independent structural unit, which deals
with the training of scholarly experts in the problems
of Africa. For the last half century the Institute had
more than 462 Ph.D. students and 32 Doctor of Science
fellows who successfully defended their thesis.
Among them 139 persons were foreign citizens.

The Council of Young Researchers

The Council of Young Researchers
was recreated in 2009 with the object
of uniting the young researchers,
expressing their interests, saving
scientific potential and overcoming
negative tendency of the generation gap.

Library

The library of the Institute for African Studies is the only
comprehensive collection of scientific and reference literature
on Africa in the Russian Federation and CIS countries.
The library makes a branch of the RAS Institute of Scientific Information
on Social Sciences (ISISS). Its stock numbers about 120 thousand
of library items: books, pamphlets, dissertations and periodicals in Russian
and foreign languages covering the problems of Africa and the Arab East.

IV-4. Entangled Cooperation. Communist Countries and the Cold War in Africa

Eastern Bloc countries tend to be described as a cohesive force, whereby each has overtly followed the path designated by Moscow and acted on its command. Internal differences within the “socialist community” are noticeable but often overlooked by the paradigm of Communist “unity”, where all the Moscow’s satellites used to play a precisely defined role on the international arena. This approach is commonly seen when researching Africa in the context of the Cold War – a place where two superpowers used to compete through their “proxies” in this fascinating, and sometimes, veiled struggle for power. However, during our panel we would like to challenge this widely adopted myth not only by reconstructing the behind-the-scenes motivations which propelled communist involvement in Africa, showing sometimes their two-pronged approach, but also by analyzing the Chinese role on this continent. Beijing’s Africa policy, if ever existed, needs proper consideration for its rationale and impacts on both the US and Soviet decision-making process. Our panel is intended to bring together scholars who work on archival documents and research still widely unknown events from African Cold War history. We would like to discuss the circumstances, results and effectiveness of Communist involvement in Africa focusing on particular countries, as well as by presenting comparative studies. We would like to reconsider ideological motivations and economic factors which paved the way for establishing mutual and multilateral relations between Communist countries and newly established African states in the 1960s. Contrary to predominant understanding of a monolithic Communist presence in Africa, we are going to look at behind-the-scenes factors as cost-effectiveness, profitability of the investments, and the focus particularly on safeguarding own interests – values which laid the groundwork for economic, scientific and cultural collaboration. We would like to gather scholars researching the Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Polish, Soviet, Romanian, Bulgarian, East-German, Cuban, North-Korean and Chinese ties with Cold War Africa and try to explore the complexities and even contradictions in the Communist camp.